By causing Autophagy (Uh-Tah-Fa-Gee) through starvation. The term autophagy means “self-eating,” and refers to the processes by which your body cleans out various debris, including toxins, and recycles damaged cell components.

Completely resting the digestive system.

Initiating endogenous (internal) ketone production by causing ketogenesis, the breakdown of body-fat to create ketone energy.

Providing community encouragement and accountability through the Facebook group at

facebook.com/groups/womenonketo

Best Practices:

1- There are no rules or mandates other than do your best. We are NOT experts. We are “Experiential Fasters” sharing what we know. However, I think the greatest way to become an expert is thru personal/group experience and education. And we can definitely check those boxes.

2- This is for you and the goal is to learn about you and why we believe fasting is deep rooted in science and plays a regular role in many peoples’ lives. As a surprise to many, you will learn more about yourself psychologically than physically. (Eating habits, emotional eating, how much you sub-consciously think about food , etc.) This is a great thing to journal and learn from .

3- Do your best to follow as closely as possible. Only water (Remember it IS a water fast). Preferably no fat calories.

4- Black coffee, black tea, and water only.

5- NO artificial sweeteners, flavors, chemicals, multi-vitamins, etc. If it’s not water and ketones its preferably not allowed but there are no “dealbreakers” other than food and caloric drinks.

6- Drink plenty of water. I used spring water. Drink a minimum of 100 oz. a day or more.

7- Listen to your body. This is for you. Nobody else. Ask questions and stay connected to the accountability group.

8- This is NOT a pass to go eat junk all weekend. The cleaner the better.

9- Commit to the Team Fasting schedule.

10- STAY OFF THE SCALE!

Intermittent Fasting

A popular intermittent fasting (IM) technique is the 16/8 method. Fast for 16 hours each day and eat for 8 hours. For example you can fast until noon and eat until 8, then fast the rest of the evening.

It is believed that IM reduces blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as increases human growth hormone (Veldhuis et. al., 1988). There is some evidence that IM can help you live longer. Studies in rodents show that it can extend lifespan as effectively as calorie restriction (Martin, Mattson, Maudsley, 2009).

Extended Fasting and Autophagy

What is autophagy?

Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2016 for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy. The word autophagy originates from the Greek words auto-, meaning “self”, and phagein, meaning “to eat.” Thus, autophagy denotes “to eat.”

The autophagy process has been shown to eliminate “garbage cells” or damaged proteins and organelles and recycle them for parts for new cells. The Nobel Prize website has more information.

It is believed to help counteract the negative consequences of aging. Intense research is now ongoing to develop drugs that can target autophagy in various diseases.

How do you activate autophagy?

Nutrient deprivation is key. It is necessary to eliminate food so that insulin goes down and glucagon goes up. Glucagon provides the greatest known boost to autophagy.